Melbourne Victory Head Coach Grant Brebner is expecting a reaction from his players in Wednesday night’s A-League encounter with Western Sydney Wanderers at Bankwest Stadium.
Following Saturday’s 5-2 defeat in Brisbane, Brebner said he and the squad held a number of ‘honest conversations’ with the intention of turning things around.
Victory’s bid for a positive result in New South Wales is enhanced by the inclusion of Rudy Gestede, who missed the last three games through injury.
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Facing the facts
“We’ve been able to have some honest conversations about where I see this group and where I see they let us down,” Brebner said.
“They let the fans down, the members down and everybody connected with this football club down. I’m not going to shy away from the fact that’s what happened on the weekend.”
After a period of self-reflection, Brebner is keen to move forward and see the club climb the A-League ladder.
“We’ve got a fantastic opportunity to win a game against a team that Carl Robinson has got playing really well and then we go into a period of five home games,” he said.
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— Melbourne Victory (@gomvfc) February 9, 2021
In attack
Gestede will be closely monitored before being fielded by Brebner, who believes the presence of the Benin striker will offer Victory’s wingers another attacking option.
“We have fantastic wide players at this football club who love to get at the full-backs, take players on and get deliveries into the box,” said Brebner.
“Rudy offers a physical threat in the box, he does like to get into duels and does like to use his body.
“Right now as a team we need that physical and bruising mentality when we get into the box because we need to score more goals.”
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Changes
Defender Nick Ansell also returns to the squad and will be in contention to make his second A-League appearance of the season.
“We’ve also got Nick Ansell who can come back into the squad and hopefully make us a little more assured at the back,” said Brebner.